L’arrangement

Mick Harvey - Intoxicated Man & Pink Elephants (2014) {2CD Set Mute Records CDSTUMM331 rel 1995, 1997}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 658 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 233 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 114 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1995, 1997, 2014 Mute Records | CDSTUMM33
Rock / Alternative / Chanson / Blues Rock / Experimental

Mick Harvey released Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants in 1995 and 1997, respectively. They were two of his first three solo albums apart from being musical director for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and they are both tribute albums to Serge Gainsbourg. Harvey was among the first native English musicians – if not the first – to delve so deeply into the vast catalog of songs from France's great musical icon (who was Belgian by birth). Both titles feature well-known Gainsbourg tunes, done in English with their French titles placed in italics side by side.

Despite its hefty, hardbound, 300-plus-page book and attendant top price, Jordi Savall's Venezia Millenaria has appeared on commercial sales charts. It's easy to see why: this is one of Savall's most ambitious concepts, covering the promised millennium of the history of the city of Venice, Italy, plus a bit more as a bonus, taking you up to the end of Venice's independence. The book contains enough information that it could serve as the basis for a little travelers' course, but there's also a case to be made for just listening and letting a thousand years of music wash over you.

Decades before Corey Harris, Guy Davis, and Keb' Mo' wed the Delta blues to various folk forms, there was Taj Mahal. Almost from the very beginning, Mahal provided audiences with connections to a plethora of blues styles. Further, he offered hard evidence connecting American blues to folk styles from other nations, particularly, but not limited to, those from the West Indies and various African countries, bridging gaps, highlighting similarities, and establishing links between many experiences of the African diaspora…

Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen present an ambitious and first ever completly instrumental arrangement of Giaccomo Puccini’s entire opera La Bohème. The musicians have arranged the score themselves, bringing together the parts of the soloists, the choir and the orchestra into a hyper-virtuosic piece for just violin and piano. Recorded live in front of an audience, van Bellen and Halvorsen give everything they have; bringing forth each scene in an expressive and highly evocative tour de force.